NICKY KELLYof Surfholidays.com
I STARTED Surfholidays.com part-time with my sister and a friend in 2005, and it grew to the point that we went full-time in February 2008. What we do is a little like what the early ski companies would have done 30 years ago, going around looking for the best skiing and the best accommodation available for what was then a fledgling market, only in our case it’s surfing.
As it happens, I got into surfing via the snow. I spent six months snowboarding and loved it but couldn’t do it once I came home. So I took up surfing, as the next best thing, and loved it even more. I got my first lesson from Tom Hickey in Strandhill, and that was it: hooked.
Most days I’m in my office, in Donnybrook in Dublin, at 8.30am. Bookings come in all through the night via the website, so I spend the first part of the morning responding to e-mails and answering phones.
I’m in charge of marketing, and I spend some time on that. We made our own TV ad, so some of my time will be spent buying media. I’ll also work on things like search-engine optimisation for our website and update the blog.
Facebook has proven a particularly good way of selling to younger people. We have 1,200 people following us there, and if we have a special deal we’ll post it on and it’ll be snapped up.
Our main market isn’t young people, surprisingly, but couples and families looking for good-quality accommodation at a good price, with surf lessons thrown in for the kids.
It’s like a souped-up sun holiday, in that you have all the elements of a traditional beach holiday but with the fun of surfing, too. Around 80 per cent of our clients are beginners.
One week each month I go to Portugal. I’ll plug in the laptop and work from there, surfing most mornings.
Most of our bookings come between January and June, however, and once summer comes my routine changes, and I head off to visit all of our accommodation providers and surf trainers in Portugal, Spain and France.
Part of my work is to try and extend surfing beyond the summer, and to that end we introduced surfing holidays in Fuerteventura last year, so I’ll go there, too. It’s 25 degrees year round, and the surfing’s great.
It is a great job. I found a thing I loved and made a career of it – but, on the other hand, three weeks of every month I’m chained to the desk here, so it’s not all fun.
At this time of the year by 6pm I’m heading home. Unfortunately, I can’t surf in Dublin, so I make do with soccer and just hanging out with my mates.
- In conversation with Sandra O'Connell